Authoritarian regimes seem to be crumbling almost daily. Will China go the way of Middle East dictatorships? The similarities are obvious. China lacks political freedoms. It is plagued by a huge gap between rich and poor, rampant corruption, rising prices of basic food stuffs, and high unemployment among recent university graduates.

Most Chinese people blame lower officials for social problems, not the central government.

But the differences are equally obvious. China is not ruled by a family and hence there is no clear source of blame. Most Chinese people (according to survey data) blame lower officials for social problems, not the central government. Also, there are opportunities for social mobility (via education and/or entrepreneurship) that seem to be lacking in the nations of the Middle East. China’s population is older and less restless. And let’s not forgot that 10 percent growth rates can lead to a more intangible sense of pride and confidence.

So calls for political change are not likely to be as pressing or revolutionary as in the Middle East. What about the question of what kind of change is most appropriate for China? Here too, there are key differences. In Egypt, for example, critics seem to largely agree on the need for free and fair elections to choose the country’s top political leaders.

Inside China, some like Liu Xiaobo, call for multi-party democracy. But most social reformers do not. Pessimists worry about the possible consequences of a transition to democratic rule: chaos followed by strongman rule. Optimists argue for political alternatives that may work better than Western-style democracy, like a legislature composed of a a democratically-elected chamber that would represent the interests of workers and farmers complemented by an appointed chamber (selected on merit) that would represent future generations and other non-voters who are affected by the policies of the government. In short, a pro-democracy uprising is not only unlikely, it may not even be broadly desired as the best means for a transition toward a mixture of democracy and meritocracy.

So why does the Chinese government rely on harsh measures to put down calls for democratic reform? It may be because under the conservative structure of the government nobody wants to be held responsible if things go wrong and hence it errs on the side of caution.

But the best way to deal with grievances is to humanize government, with more freedom of speech, more semi-autonomous organizations, and more social justice. Let bad proposals for political change die a natural death in the marketplace of ideas.That would be far more effective in the long term than top-down control.